History

The safari suit pub crawls are a longstanding annual tradition. Read the About page for more information about this website.

How did the safari suit pub crawls start?

In the mid 1980s a group of friends liked to go the Seacliff pub and sometimes had trouble getting entry into the pub past the bouncers because of the clothes they were wearing. Mmmm, how to solve this problem? Wear safari suits of course. How can a bouncer turn away a bunch of people smartly dressed in the epitome of smart casual dress. This was the beginning and it would only get bigger.

Bob Pitt organised the early safari cruises on Popeye to the zoo and there was an outing to a Bob Downe show during an Adelaide Fringe from these safari suit loving mates with them all wearing safari suits, and of course we know that Bob Downe loves a good safari suit himself.

In 1990 there was a mini safari pub crawl but it was in 1992 that the safari pub crawls officially started, organised by Gus Clutterbuck and Grant Senior (Winks). In these early days they started at the St Vincents Hotel at Glenelg in the front bar. Then everyone caught a tram into the city to carry on in various pubs there.

These continued annually and in the Adelaide Fringe festivals in 1998 and 2000 there were art exhibition openings with the safari suit theme at Tapas (which was in the East End then) and the Greater Union mall on Hindley Street respectively.

In 2002 the safari pub crawl got bigger and better beginning with a sunset Popeye cruise, a tradition which continues now with 70 people fitting on Popeye and more people meeting at the pre-arranged pubs afterwards.

The fun thing about the safari pub crawls is the dressing up and the competition for receiving awards. Visit the awards pages to find out what awards there are.

Now there’s more people than Gus and Winks organising as the Hall of Fame members get to help out with organising the yearly event, the prizes for the various awards, and helping to choose the award winners.

There are safari traditions also.